Social Factors and Non-Native Attitudes Towards Varieties of Spoken English: A Japanese Case Study

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Social factors and non-native attitudes towards varieties of

spoken English: A Japanese case study
Article in International Journal of Applied Linguistics · February 2008

DOI: 10.1111/j.1473-4192.2008.00179.x
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International Journal of Applied Linguistics w Vol. 18 w No. 1 w 2008
Social factors and non-native attitudes

Robert
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towards varieties of spoken English:

a Japanese case study
Robert M. McKenzie University of Glasgow
This paper, through the employment of a verbal-guise study and techniques

incorporated from perceptual dialectology, investigated the attitudes of 558
Japanese university students towards six varieties of English speech. Although
the results suggest a particularly favourable attitude towards standard and
non-standard varieties of UK and US English in terms of ‘status’, informants
expressed greater ‘solidarity’ with a Japanese speaker of heavily-accented
English. Differences in the students’ gender, self-perceived proficiency in
English, exposure to English and evaluations of varieties of Japanese all had
significant effects on the informants’ attitudes. The findings are discussed in
relation to the pedagogical and language planning implications in English
language teaching inside and outside Japan.
Keywords: language attitudes, native vs. non-native speakers, language and
identity, English as a lingua franca/international language, sociolinguistics
Introduction
Since individuals’ evaluations of their social environment are recognised to

have major consequences, ‘attitude’ has long been a fundamental construct
© 2008 The Author

Journal compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
64 w Robert M. McKenzie
in the field of social psychology (Eagly and Chaiken 1993). The attitudes that
individuals hold are generally regarded as ‘summary evaluations’ (Bohner
and Wanke 2002), and one reason they are important to investigate is because
they may lead to stereotyping, i.e. where a category of people are assigned a
set of characteristics defining the group. In a linguistic context, a speech
recording can trigger a listener’s stereotypes regarding the perceived social
group membership of the speaker, which may or may not be close to the
social realities they represent. Individuals’ social evaluations are also important
because, despite the complexity of the relationship, social psychologists are
generally in agreement that attitudes are a major influence on behaviour
(Bohner and Wanke 2002). Interestingly, research has also indicated that
changes in behaviour can also influence attitudes (Eagly and Chaiken 1993).
There is evidence to suggest that the strength of the attitude–behaviour
relationship is highly dependent upon the wider social context, and especially
as regards the competing and conflicting attitudes which living in a complex
social environment may evoke (Erwin 2001). Hence, when investigating any
link between, for example, individuals’ attitudes towards specific language
varieties and their sociolinguistic behaviour, it would be profitable to take
into account the society within which these individuals operate. Carranza
(1982) maintains that attitudes towards language varieties can contribute to
sound changes, define speech communities, reflect in-group communication
and help determine teachers’ views of students’ abilities. Hence, evaluations
of speakers of particular language varieties, for example, may affect the
extent to which certain groups (such as speakers of regional varieties or
minority languages) participate in higher education or influence employment
opportunities. Moreover, language attitudes may determine whether and to
what extent languages or language varieties spread or decay. Indeed, it is
thought that language spread can be measured not only through the extent
of the use of the language or language variety, but also through investigation
of the attitudes of individuals towards its use (Fishman and Rubal-Lopez
1992). In the case of an international language such as English, positive
evaluations of (varieties of) the language are certainly one important factor
in – and perhaps even the major determinant of – its worldwide spread. It
is for the reasons detailed above that native and non-native speakers’
evaluations of specific languages and language varieties have been a
traditional concern of applied linguists and sociolinguists.
Language attitudes and native speakers
Studies focusing specifically on native speaker attitudes towards varieties of

English speech have demonstrated that standard varieties tend to be judged
positively in terms of ‘status’, and hence are frequently rated highly on traits
such as ambition and intelligence. This appears to be the case both when
the judges are speakers of standard varieties and when the judges speak
© 2008 The Author

Non-native attitudes towards varieties of spoken English w 65
non-standard varieties of English. In contrast, non-standard speech tends to

be evaluated more highly in terms of ‘solidarity’ when compared to varieties
of standard speech. Speakers of non-standard varieties are therefore generally
rated highly on dimensions such as honesty and friendliness, particularly
when the judges are speakers of a non-standard variety themselves. The
distinctions between evaluations of standard and non-standard varieties of
English speech by native speakers have been demonstrated in a number of
studies and in a wide range of countries where English is spoken as a native
language (Edwards 1994), i.e. the Inner Circle of English use (Kachru 1985).
In the specific case of the USA, native speaker judgements of whether
varieties of English speech are considered standard or non-standard are
largely based on regional lines. Southern United States English and New
York English are clearly varieties prejudiced against and consistently rated
lowly in terms of ‘correctness’ (Lippi-Green 1997). The unfavourable evaluations
of southern US speech may be due to associations of the region with rural
poverty and a poor standard of education (Milroy 2001). Fought (2002) also
maintains that attitudes towards varieties of southern US English may be
unduly influenced by associations with African-American vernacular English
(AAVE). Evaluations of speech varieties on racial dimensions indicate that
language attitude research can reveal prejudices that might not – or, indeed,
cannot – be expressed in other contexts. In contrast, speakers from the
Midwest of the United States are generally judged by native speakers of
English in the US to represent mainstream (i.e. standard) US English. It
appears to be for this reason (at least amongst native speakers) that they
consistently rate Midwest US English very favourably, particularly in terms
of ‘status’ (Lippi-Green 1997).
In the UK it has been demonstrated that native speakers of English hold
particularly negative attitudes towards urban non-standard varieties of
speech. Many separate language attitude studies have confirmed that the
most stigmatised urban varieties of English in the UK are those vernaculars
spoken by working-class speakers in the industrial centres of Birmingham,
Liverpool and Glasgow (Giles and Coupland 1991). In the case of the latter,
evaluations of Glasgow speech, by both Glaswegians and non-Glaswegians
alike, appear to be particularly negative (Macafee 1994). In the city, Glasgow
vernacular speech exists alongside the regional standard, Scottish Standard
English (SSE), which is mainly associated with educated, middle-class speakers.
In general, in the UK, attitudes towards the standardised varieties of Scottish,
Welsh and Irish speakers appear to be very favourable, with the speech of
educated Scots (i.e. SSE) evaluated particularly positively (Milroy 1999).
Language attitudes and non-native speakers
The social evaluations of non-native speakers of languages and language

varieties are also of importance. In particular, research has demonstrated that
© 2008 The Author

learner attitudes toward the target language and its speakers play a central
role in determining levels of success for the acquisition of the language (e.g.
MacIntyre, Clement, Dornyei and Noels 1998; Dornyei, Csizer and Nemeth
2006). The relationship between attitude and second language acquisition,
however, appears to be extremely complex and is likely to vary according to
the social context. Ellis (1994), for instance, maintains that levels of proficiency
in the L2 are not determined by variables such as age, sex or social class but
rather by the attitudes and social conditions associated with these factors.
Thus, it would be profitable to investigate whether such variables influence
attitudes. Studies investigating the attitudes of language learners towards the
target language are also important because they raise awareness amongst
learners that they have to deal with their own stereotypes, prejudices and
expectations as well as the linguistic features of the language (Friedrich 2000).
The great majority of studies which have investigated non-native
attitudes, i.e. in the Outer/Expanding Circles of English use (Kachru 1985),
have tended to measure evaluations of ‘the English language’, conceptualised
as a single entity. This is somewhat surprising considering the importance
of attitudes towards language variation in the study of second language
acquisition (Dornyei and Skehan 2003) and in the building of sociolinguistic
theory (Garrett, Coupland and Williams 2003). Friedrich (2000) also argues
that educators and policy-makers should be aware of the attitudes of their
students towards language variation in order to fully address their needs and
to deal with the potentially mixed feelings that English, an international
language, can provoke. Similarly, Starks and Paltridge (1996) maintain that
the choice of teaching model is influenced by students’ attitudes, and hence
that it is important to discover what variety of English language learners
want as an ideal language goal. This issue is currently the subject of a great
deal of debate within Applied Linguistics.
It seems clear, at least in a European context, that RP (Received
Pronunciation) is generally regarded highly as a model for pronunciation
amongst learners of English – most probably due to the learners’ familiarity
with the variety, through repeated classroom and media exposure or because
they have a general awareness of and preference for Inner Circle standard
varieties of English as prestige forms of speech (e.g. Dalton-Puffer,
Kaltenboeck and Smit 1997; Ladegaard 1998). Nevertheless, it is not known
how European learners of English rate non-standard varieties of native
English speech.
In Japan, the varieties chosen as appropriate teaching models in English
language classrooms were initially (pre-World War II) RP, and later (post-
1945) General American, i.e. standard US English, although other pedagogical
models have been proposed (see Smith 2004). However, the findings from
the limited number of previous studies conducted, which have concentrated
specifically on social evaluations of varieties of English in Japan, have been
somewhat inconclusive. For example, although it seems clear that Japanese
learners of English are positive towards standard varieties of American and
© 2008 The Author

British English, it remains unclear to what extent English language learners

in Japan consider non-standard or regional varieties of Inner Circle Englishes
as acceptable models for learning. This is because there has been no in-depth
study of Japanese attitudes towards standard and non-standard varieties
of English speech. Previous studies have either been too small in scale
(e.g. McKenzie 2004) or have required informants to evaluate only broad
categories of speech, such as British English or American English (e.g. Chiba,
Matsuura and Yamamoto 1995; Matsuura, Chiba and Fujieda 1999). Indeed,
the general use of such vague labels can create problems, as there is often no
clear consensus, even amongst linguists, regarding their definition. Prior
language attitude research has thus tended to ignore the substantial regional
and social variation within these broad geographical areas and the resultant
phonetic, lexical and morphological differences between varieties.
Criticisms have also been made of much of the existing language attitude
research, particularly involving non-native speakers of English from outside
Europe, because researchers have frequently assumed a homogeneity within
the observed speech communities and hence have generally failed to take
into account the potentially differentiating factors within a population, which
may influence attitudes towards languages and language varieties (Starks
and Paltridge 1996). The provision of detailed social information is
particularly important when conducting sociolinguistic research in Japan,
as it is currently unknown which social variables are significant within the
population of the country. This has contributed to a lack of sociolinguistic
framework within which to describe the complex language situation in Japan
(Maher and Yashiro 1995). Moreover, there is currently a more general
paradigm shift in research in Japan, resulting in a movement away from the
formerly dominant ‘group model’, which views Japan as a culturally and
socially homogeneous society, towards the provision of information on social
variation amongst the population (Yoshino 1992).
The Japanese language, of course, also exhibits substantial regional and social
variation. Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that the attitudes of
Japanese nationals towards urban non-standard varieties of Japanese are
increasingly favourable (see Carroll 2001). It is not known whether the language
attitudes that Japanese nationals hold towards varieties of the Japanese
language influence any attitudes they may hold towards varieties of English.
The above discussion has demonstrated the potential value of conducting
further in-depth research on the attitudes of Japanese learners towards
English speech varieties. In particular, there is a clear justification for the
investigation of attitudes towards: (i) standard as opposed to non-standard
varieties; and (ii) native as opposed to non-native varieties of English speech.
The study also attempts to measure the influence (if any) that attitudes towards
variation in L1 (i.e. evaluations of varieties of Japanese) have on any attitudes
Japanese learners hold towards varieties of English. Furthermore, there is
also a need to determine to what extent social variables within the population
account for differences in attitudes towards varieties of English speech.
© 2008 The Author

Methodology
The research instrument
The research instrument employed in the study comprises three main parts.
1. The verbal-guise technique
This section examines the informants’ language attitudes towards English

speech varieties. Although the most frequently utilised indirect technique in
the measurement of language attitudes is the matched-guise technique, in this
instance it was decided to employ the verbal-guise technique (VGT). The verbal-
guise technique involves informants listening to recordings of natural speech
from a series of speakers. Informants are requested to evaluate each speaker,
most often on a bipolar semantic-differential scale (see below), in relation to
a number of personality traits (e.g. educated/uneducated, honest/dishonest).
The decision to use the VGT was taken for three reasons. First, in matched-
guise studies, speakers are generally required to read aloud the same
prepared text in a number of different varieties. However, reading aloud is
a marked verbal style, likely to produce a number of distinctive prosodic and
sequential phonological features, such as increased pausing at syntactic
boundaries, a higher incidence of ‘spelling pronunciations’ and a more
evenly modulated stress pattern. Hence, stimulus recordings of speakers
reading out a prepared passage are likely to vary in style from spontaneous
speech. It has also been found that the geographic origin of the speaker is
easier to identify for listeners when the speech sample is spontaneous rather
than when the speaker is reading aloud from a prescribed text, as spontaneous
speech can contain a wider range of cues related to the speaker’s geographic
origin and can also vary lexically, syntactically or morphologically (Van
Bezooijen and Gooskens 1997). In short, it was felt that the use of
spontaneous speech was more authentic than a read, pre-prepared text.
Secondly, the careful control of the speech event, through the employment of
the map task (see Appendix A), enabled the recording of suitable ‘factually
neutral’ stimulus speech, hence controlling potentially extraneous variables.
Thirdly, from a practical point of view, it would prove impossible to find a
single speaker who could convincingly produce all six varieties of English.
Nevertheless, it is important when employing the VGT to select the speakers
very carefully, to minimise the potentially confounding influence of non-
variety specific speaker differences. In accordance with other studies of a
similar nature (e.g. Ladegaard 1998; Cargile, Takai and Rodriguez 2006), this
was achieved by creating a large database of speech recordings and choosing
speakers with comparable voice qualities and rates of speech.
A semantic-differential scale was utilised for the study. In previous
studies investigating attitudes towards English in Japan, researchers have
© 2008 The Author

Table 1. Verbal-guise study: the semantic-differential scale
pleasant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not pleasant

confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not confident
unclear 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 clear
modest 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not modest
not funny 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 funny
intelligent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not intelligent
not gentle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gentle
not fluent 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 fluent
tended to employ traits in the semantic-differential scale on the basis of those

commonly utilised in earlier attitude studies involving non-Japanese informants.
However, there is evidence to indicate that different speech communities
may react to any given adjective in different ways; in other words, reactions
of informants are likely to be highly culture bound (El-Dash and Busnardo
2001). Hence, there is a case for replacing adjectives used in previous studies
with items that take account of the specific cultural context of the study
(Garrett et al. 2003). In the present study, therefore, a specific semantic-
differential scale was specially constructed. The bipolar adjectives employed
in the seven-point scale were obtained during a pilot study, where Japanese
students, considered comparable judges to the listener-judges selected for the
main study, were asked to provide descriptions of each of the six speakers.
The eight most frequent descriptions (along with their bipolar opposites)
were selected and subsequently positioned in a randomised order to form the
semantic-differential scale (see Table 1).
2. Perceptual dialectology
This section gathers information regarding the informants’ evaluations of

varieties of Japanese speech. As detailed above, such information was
requested because it is, at present, unknown whether the attitudes of
Japanese nationals towards varieties of the Japanese language influence any
attitudes they may hold to varieties of English. Although it would have been
possible to again employ the VGT to measure the informants’ attitudes, it
was decided to employ data-gathering techniques from perceptual dialectology
(Preston, 1989). This decision was taken because, in addition to providing
specific insights into the informants’ attitudes, the inclusion of a map-labelling
task (see Appendix C) also potentially provided more contextualised
information on their awareness of variation within the Japanese language
more generally. Moreover, in order to minimise the potentially confounding
effects of listener fatigue, it was decided not to present additional speech
samples for evaluation.
© 2008 The Author

3. Background information of participants
The limited number of previous studies which have concentrated specifically

on social evaluations of varieties of English in Japan have indicated that
variables within the population, such as the respondents’ gender (Starks and
Paltridge 1996) or level of prior exposure to particular speech varieties (Matsuura
et al. 1999; McKenzie 2004), can account for variations in their attitudes. Hence,
to determine the validity (or not) of the results obtained in these studies,
the present study gives background information regarding both the gender and
the level of previous exposure to varieties of English of the informants.
Information regarding the regional provenance of the informants was
also requested. In a previous large-scale longitudinal study of attitudes
towards English, German, Russian and French amongst foreign language
learners in Hungary, geography was found to be an influence, with a
preference expressed for different languages in rural and urban areas
(Dornyei et al. 2006). Hence, in the present study, the informants were asked
to state whether they perceived themselves to be from a rural or urban area
of Japan. Information regarding the regional provenance of the informants
may be particularly important when undertaking research in Japan, because
there is some evidence that the rural/urban distinction may be a salient
factor amongst the Japanese themselves (Carroll 2001).
Self-perceived proficiency in English, defined as a reflection of the
learner’s perception of his/her competence in the target language (Dewaele
2005), was also investigated as a potential predictor of attitude. Details of the
Japanese students’ own perceptions of their overall level in English were
included because previous studies have linked the individual’s perception
of his/her competence in the target language with both a willingness to
communicate and attitudes towards learning the language. In turn, there is
evidence that both these factors are predictors of future progress in the
language (MacIntyre et al. 1998; Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide and Shimuzu 2004).
To control other potentially confounding factors, additional personal
information was requested regarding the respondent’s nationality, native
language, age, current place of residence and place of birth. In light of this,
the sample appeared to be composed solely of university students of
Japanese nationality, who spoke Japanese as a first language, were born in
and lived and studied in Japan.
The varieties of speech selected
As it was considered vital to give the informants a sufficient period of time

to fully develop and record evaluations, it was necessary to present relatively
lengthy samples of the six varieties. Thus, although it would also have been
interesting to present a greater number of spoken varieties, it was felt that
listener fatigue might compromise the validity of the data collected if more
© 2008 The Author

than six speech recordings of the required length were utilised. Four native
(Inner Circle) and two non-native (Expanding Circle) varieties of English
were chosen. Two of the recorded native varieties of English are spoken in
the UK: Glasgow vernacular speech and Glasgow Standard English. The
other two native varieties of English recorded are spoken in the United
States: Southern US English (Alabama) and Midwest US English (Ohio).
These four native English speech varieties were selected specifically because
previous native speaker attitude research has demonstrated that together
they constitute examples of the most and the least favourably evaluated
speech varieties in the UK and in the US (see above). It would therefore be
informative to discover whether evaluations of these varieties amongst non-
native speakers of English are broadly similar to native speaker perceptions.
It should be noted that, particularly in the spoken form, there exists a
multitude of standard Englishes, and that notions of what constitutes
standard spoken English vary from area to area. For the purposes of the
present study, ‘standard’ is defined, following Bex and Watts (1999: 7), as the
variety of a language based on the speech and writing of educated speakers
and which has the highest degree of respect in a particular speech
community. ‘Non-standard’ is thus defined as a spoken or written variety
which is not accorded the highest prestige and which differs in terms of
pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary from the standard (Richards, Platt
and Platt 1992: 248). Nevertheless, it is accepted that no general consensus
has been reached on the definitions of both ‘standard’ and ‘non-standard’
English (Bex and Watts 1999), and thus these terms should be read as if in
‘scare quotes’.
Recordings of two Japanese non-native speakers of English were also
included. Although both speakers were at an advanced level in English, one
speaker spoke moderately-accented Japanese English whilst the other spoke
heavily-accented Japanese English. Recordings of these two speakers were
included to examine possible differences in attitude towards native and
non-native varieties of English. Moreover, previous attitude research has
demonstrated that the degree of accentedness (e.g. from mild to broad) may
also affect listener evaluations, with ratings less favourable the more heavily-
accented the speaker sounded (Giles and Coupland 1991). Previous studies
have indicated that this may be particularly the case when the speech sample
is provided by a non-native speaker of the language (e.g. Dalton-Puffer et al.
1997). Japanese speakers of English were recorded because it was considered
to be of particular value to investigate the attitudes of Japanese learners
towards the local variety of English and to validate (or not) the findings of
the few previous studies in Japan, which have generally suggested that
learners of English have ambivalent feelings towards Japanese English
(Chiba et al. 1995).
As described above, speakers were recorded giving directions on the
same fictitious map (see Appendix A). It was decided to record only female
speakers of English, to provide control over potential confounding variables.
© 2008 The Author

Table 2. Speakers and varieties of speech employed
Speaker Speech variety Description Coded

reference
1 Glasgow Standard Native/Inner Circle/ GSE

English Standard English
2 Heavily-accented Non-native/Expanding HJE
Japanese English Circle English
3 Southern US English Native/Inner Circle/ SUSE
non-standard English
4 Moderately-accented Non-native/Expanding MJE
Japanese English Circle English
5 Mid-West US English Native/Inner Circle/ MWUSE
Standard English
6 Glasgow vernacular Native/Inner Circle/ GV
non-standard English
To further minimise potential extraneous factors amongst the selected

speakers and speech recordings, a number of other factors were controlled.
First, the age range of the six speakers is relatively narrow; between 22 and
34 years of age (mean = 28.0, SD = 4.50). The speech samples selected are also
broadly similar in length, ranging from 1 minute 14 seconds to 1 minute 30
seconds. Moreover, although the map task was considered ‘factually neutral’,
the six speech recordings were screened for obvious references made to the
speakers’ nationality, social class, regional provenance or variety of English
spoken. The speakers were also selected for comparable voice qualities, and
overall the recordings were considered representative samples of the
varieties of English chosen; the authenticity of the recordings was, at the
earliest pre-test stage, validated by a number of listener-judges from Japan,
the USA and Scotland. (See Appendix B for speaker transcriptions.) A
summary of the speakers and speech varieties selected is given in Table 2.
The informants
The population selected consisted principally of Japanese nationals currently

learning English at eleven universities throughout Japan. All the informants
were studying English at their respective universities, either as a principal
subject or as a major component in another discipline. The responses of a
number of informants who did not report their nationality as Japanese and/
or as native speakers of Japanese were discarded. The revised number of
informants was 558: 513 undergraduates and 45 graduates. The age range of
the sample was between 17 and 58, with the majority aged between 18 and
22 years of age (mean = 20.22, SD = 2.99).
© 2008 The Author

Procedure
The data collection was undertaken in Japan over a two-month period in late
2005. To ensure uniformity of measurement, the procedures involved in each
class visit were standardised.
Results and discussion
Preliminary analysis
The first stage of the analysis of the data collected in the verbal-guise study
was to tabulate the informants’ responses for each of the eight bipolar traits
(Table 3). The mean evaluations of the six speakers for each of the eight traits
were then calculated. These were subsequently subjected to principal com-
ponents analysis (PCA) in order to locate the evaluative dimensions within
the data collected. The analysis revealed the presence of two components
with eigen values in excess of 1.0, together accounting for 41.63% of the
variance. Interestingly, the loadings on these two components are consistent
with previous language attitude studies, involving the evaluations of native
speakers, as the competence (or status) traits loaded strongly on Component
1, and the social attractiveness (or solidarity) traits loaded strongly on
Component 2 (accounting for 26.49% and 15.14% of the variance respectively).
Table 3. Rotated component matrix: sum of speakers
Trait Component
1 2
intelligent .740
confident .678
fluent .555
clear .529
gentle .694
pleasant .584
funny .538
modest .527
Speaker evaluations: analysis of components extracted
The speaker evaluations were then analysed for the dimensions of competence
and social attractiveness, employing individual one-way repeated-measures
© 2008 The Author

Table 4. Rankings according to speaker competence and speaker social attractiveness

(in descending order of evaluation)
Competence Social attractiveness

F(5, 2785) = 266.90, p < 0.05; F(5, 2785) = 57.09, p < 0.05;
eta squared = 0.655 eta squared = 0.283
Mid-West US English Heavily-accented Japanese English

Southern US English Glasgow vernacular
Glasgow vernacular Southern US English
Glasgow Standard English Moderately-accented Japanese English
Moderately-accented Japanese English Glasgow Standard English
Heavily-accented Japanese English Mid-West US English
analysis of variance (ANOVA) and follow-up pairwise comparison analysis

(with Bonferroni adjustments). The rankings of the six speakers for competence
and social attractiveness are summarised in Table 4. Underlining indicates
positions where there are significant differences (p < 0.05) between the ratings
(see Appendices D and E for the results of the pairwise comparison analysis).
The rankings shown in Table 4 demonstrate that, in terms of competence,
the Japanese learners rated speakers of Inner Circle varieties of English more
positively than speakers of Japanese-accented Expanding Circle English.
Moreover, the results indicate a particular positive bias for (standard and
non-standard) varieties of US English as prestige forms of speech. Hence,
when the overall differences between the informants’ ratings are compared,
a clear hierarchy emerges, where speakers of US English are preferred, followed
by the speakers of UK varieties, with the Japanese speakers of English the
least preferred. This tripartite hierarchy of evaluations on the competence
dimension is consistent with the results of the limited number of previous
studies, which have concentrated specifically on social evaluations of
English in Japan, where evidence was also found to suggest that Japanese
learners were more favourable towards Inner Circle varieties of English than
(Outer or) Expanding Circle varieties of English (e.g. Chiba et al. 1995), and
were particularly favourable towards ‘American English’ (e.g. Matsuura
et al. 1999).
Nevertheless, as described previously, there is a high degree of ambiguity
concerning the findings obtained in much of this previous research. Therefore,
the results of the present study serve to clarify the earlier findings, by
demonstrating that, at least in terms of competence, evaluations of non-
standard varieties of native English speech likewise tend to fall into the
tripartite hierarchical pattern.
A possible explanation for the relatively unfavourable responses to the
competence of the Japanese speakers of English is that the informants,
through media-transmitted stereotypes and the study of English in the
© 2008 The Author

classroom in Japan, have been ‘persuaded’ that their distinctive speech style
(i.e. Japanese-accented English) has little intrinsic value or status, and that
assimilation to the prestige varieties (i.e. ‘native speaker Englishes’) is the
most desirable outcome. This explanation is supported by the results of the
evaluations of the two Japanese speakers of English, where the heavily-
accented speaker was rated the lowest for competence and significantly less
favourably than the moderately-accented speaker, suggesting that the more
‘Japanese’ the speaker is considered to sound, the less favourably she was
evaluated.
In terms of social attractiveness, the picture is very different. The Japanese
learners expressed a clear preference for the speaker of heavily-accented
Japanese English. This finding implies that the learners identify with the HJE
speaker, and hence perceive a high degree of solidarity with the heavily-
accented Japanese speech. Since the social attractiveness (i.e. solidarity)
component loaded so strongly as a distinct scale (see above), the possibility
exists that the HJE speech itself is a salient marker of in-group identity
amongst the Japanese learners of English. In contrast, the speaker of
moderately-accented Japanese English was rated much less favourably. This
suggests that the MJE speaker may be categorised as outgroup by the
learners, and thus not/no longer perceived as representative of an L1 Japanese
national speaking English. The evaluations of the HJE and MJE speakers
indicate that the degree of accentedness influences social attractiveness
ratings where, in contrast with the ratings for competence, the more ‘Japanese’
the speaker sounds, the more positively she will be judged.
Interestingly, the findings of a study by Garrett et al. (2003), investigating
native speaker attitudes towards English speech varieties in Wales, point in
a similar direction, where the ‘authentic Welshness’ of the speech influenced
informants’ evaluations, with speakers deemed ‘more Welsh’ than others rated
more favourably. In the present study, the informants’ general categorisation
of the MJE speaker as outgroup seems to cast doubt upon the appropriateness
of moderately-accented Japanese English speech as a suitable linguistic
model to be employed in English language classrooms in Japan. However, the
high degree of solidarity expressed by the learners towards the HJE speaker
implies – provided intelligibility for the (native or non-native) listener is
not unduly affected – that heavily-accented Japanese English may be a more
suitable objective for Japanese learners to achieve. A similar view is taken by
Jenkins (2000: 17), who notes that since there are ‘sound psychological
reasons for not pushing learners to approximate an L1 accent too closely’,
any alternative should thus ‘express the identities of its L2 speakers’.
The rankings also indicate that when the informants’ ratings for the social
attractiveness of speakers of standard and non-standard varieties of UK and
US speech are compared, a clear preference is expressed for the non-standard
varieties. This pattern mirrors native speaker evaluations in the UK and the
US, where a preference for the non-standard variety on dimensions of social
attractiveness also tends to be demonstrated. These results may reflect the
© 2008 The Author

learners’ awareness of the prestige which standard varieties of US English,

and to a lesser extent, UK English, are afforded in the English-language
media in Japan generally, whilst also revealing an underlying aversion
amongst the informants towards the power and influence which speakers of
these varieties hold both within and outwith Japan.
Moreover, the favourable evaluations of the GV and SUSE speakers in
terms of both competence and social attractiveness demonstrate a broad
tolerance towards non-standard varieties of UK and US speech, and suggests
that neither recruiting teachers of English who speak non-standard varieties
of Inner Circle English nor exposing Japanese learners to non-standard as
well as standard varieties of native speech would significantly reduce their
motivation for acquiring the language. Increased exposure to both non-
standard and standard varieties of English speech would also help familiarise
Japanese learners with local varieties of English, which they are increasingly
likely to hear outside the language classroom. This view is broadly
compatible with that of Deterding (2005), who believes that, as most learners
of English will interact with a wide range of individuals, many of whom are
likely to speak non-standard varieties of English, in order to prepare for such
interactions it is important that students are not exposed to a few select
standard varieties of English speech only.
Interestingly, the results of a separate ‘dialect recognition question’ (not
detailed due to space limitations) found that informants were generally able
to classify the six speakers correctly as either native or non-native. Further
multivariate analysis demonstrated that the informants evaluated the
competence of the native speakers significantly more favourably when their
provenance was identified correctly (i.e. as the UK, the US or Japan), suggesting
that these learners tend to look towards (standard and non-standard)
varieties of inner circle English for ‘notions of correctness’.
Attitudes towards non-standard Japanese
Although it is clear that some differences in evaluations exist, the informants

generally demonstrated a broad tolerance, if not a reserved approval, of
non-standard varieties of Japanese speech. Separate one-way between-groups
multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were conducted in order to
investigate whether the differences in ratings for non-standard Japanese in
any way shaped the results of the speaker evaluations. Analysis revealed
that there was no significant main effect between positive (n = 239), neutral
(n = 222) and negative (n = 97) evaluations of non-standard Japanese and
social attractiveness: F(12, 1102) = 0.716, p > 0.05 (p = 0.735). In contrast, an
overall effect was demonstrated on competence: F(12, 1102) = 1.78, p < 0.05;
eta squared = 0.019. Further analysis revealed that the only difference to
reach statistical significance was the HJE speaker, where informants who
were broadly neutral in their evaluations of non-standard Japanese judged
© 2008 The Author

the HJE speaker significantly less positively (i.e. no significant effects were
found for positive or negative evaluations of non-standard Japanese). It
seems reasonable to assume that these individuals have lower levels of
awareness of regional and social variation in the Japanese language, and
because of this are less likely to accept Japanese-accented English. The
implication of this finding seems clear: enhanced awareness of social and
regional variation within the Japanese language amongst Japanese learners
can have a positive effect upon their evaluations of the correctness and status
of forms of English spoken by Japanese. Hence, the general attitude changes
currently occurring amongst Japanese nationals, towards a greater acceptance
(and presumably, a greater awareness) of varieties of Japanese speech (see
above), may in future result in increased tolerance of local varieties of English
speech amongst Japanese learners.
Nevertheless, it would be of considerable value to incorporate discussion
about standard and non-standard varieties of Japanese into both the Japanese-
language and the English-language classroom in Japanese schools in order to
equip learners with levels of variation awareness sufficient to allow them
later to cope with the cultural and linguistic bias that appears to exist towards
particular forms of both non-standard native and non-native varieties of
English and their speakers, both inside and outwith Japan. However, it is
worth noting that, since the investigation of this variable is highly exploratory,
and thus the claims highly speculative, further investigation concentrating
specifically on the role of attitudes towards L1 on evaluations of L2 is necessary.
The social factors of gender, self-perceived proficiency in English,

previous exposure to English and regional provenance
Analysis was also conducted to investigate the potential influence of the

social variables on the competence and social attractiveness ratings. The
analysis was divided into two principal stages. First, one-way multivariate
analysis of variance (MANOVA) was employed to determine the significant
main effects (if any) on the informants’ ratings for each dimension. Secondly,
separate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to identify any
interaction effects.
1. Gender
No significant overall effect was found for gender on social attractiveness:

F(6, 551) = 1.47, p > 0.05 (p = 1.88). In contrast, a main effect was demonstrated
for gender on competence: F(6, 551) = 3.41, p < 0.05; partial eta squared =
0.036. Further analysis revealed that the female informants (n = 331) rated
three speakers of Inner Circle English (GSE, SUSE and MWUSE) significantly
more positively when compared to the male informants (n = 227).
© 2008 The Author

2. Self-perceived proficiency in English
No significant overall effect was demonstrated for self-perceived proficiency

in English on social attractiveness: F(6, 551) = 0.713, p > 0.05; (p = 0.640). An
overall effect was revealed for the competence ratings: F(6, 551) = 6.45, p < 0.05;
partial eta squared = 0.066. Subsequent analysis revealed that informants
who perceived they had obtained a higher level of proficiency (n = 209) were
significantly more favourable towards GSE, SUSE and MWUSE speakers
than those informants who believed they were of a lower proficiency in
English (n = 349). In contrast, with regard to the HJE speaker, the evaluations
of the higher-proficiency group were significantly less positive than of the
lower-proficiency group.
3. Previous exposure to English
No significant overall effect was found for previous exposure to English on

social attractiveness: F(6, 551) = 1.83, p > 0.05 (p = 0.92). An overall effect was,
however, demonstrated for competence: F(6, 551) = 7.46, p < 0.05; partial eta
squared = 0.075. Further analysis revealed that informants with greater
experience of travelling to English-speaking countries (three months or more)
(n = 112) rated the GSE, SUSE and MWUSE speakers significantly more
favourably when compared to informants with less experience (under three
months) (n = 446). However, informants who had less experience of
travelling to English-speaking countries rated the HJE speaker significantly
more positively than did informants with greater experience.
4. Regional provenance
Analysis failed to uncover any main effects between urban (n = 248) and
rural (n = 310) informants’ ratings on social attractiveness: F(6, 551) = 0.725,
p > 0.05 (p = 0.629) or on competence: F(6, 551) = 1.17, p > 0.05 (p = 0.320).
Therefore, differences in the informants’ regional provenance do not appear
to have significant overall effects on speaker evaluations.
Separate three-way and two-way between-groups ANOVAs revealed that

there were no significant interaction effects between any of the background
variables on the competence and social attractiveness ratings for the six
speakers, which provides greater external validity for the main effects
demonstrated above.
To sum up, differences in gender, level of self-perceived proficiency in
English and level of exposure to English have clear, unique and direct
influences upon the attitudes of Japanese learners towards varieties of
© 2008 The Author

English. These three social factors are likely to be of particular importance in

determining attitudes towards the relative prestige of different varieties of
English speech, with the result that both female learners of English and those
learners with greater contact with native speakers of the language tend to
favour non-standard as well as standard varieties of Inner Circle English
over forms of English spoken by Japanese. Therefore, the results of the study
demonstrate that social variation within the population can account for
variations in attitudes towards forms of English speech, and thus challenge
the suitability of the formerly dominant ‘group model’, which by definition
has assumed a homogeneity in evaluations amongst Japanese nationals.
Conclusion
In contrast to the findings of equivalent studies involving Japanese learners

of English, where speech evaluations of English were assumed to be
unidimensional, the results of the present study demonstrated that the
informants’ ratings of speakers of varieties of English speech tend to be
complex and are often contradictory. If this is indeed the case, and given
the social context in Japan, with the increasing power of the English-
language media and rising importance of English in the country generally, it
is vital that those concerned with English-language education in Japan are
made aware of the general complexity of learners’ attitudes towards social
and regional variation in English, and that these attitudes are taken into
account. This may be particularly the case for language planners and
educators in Japan with respect to curriculum design, teacher recruitment
and the specific choice of linguistic model(s) employed in English language
classrooms. In the case of the latter, the results seemed to suggest that if
‘status’ (i.e. competence) were the overriding factor, then varieties of US
English may be likely candidates as linguistic models. In contrast, the results
also indicated that if ‘solidarity’ (i.e. social attractiveness) were the determining
factor, then heavily-accented Japanese English or non-standard varieties of
UK/US English might be more appropriate models for Japanese learners of
English. It should be borne in mind, however, that learners themselves are
active agents in deciding the target language variety (Ellis 1994), and hence
will actively choose whether – and, if so, to what extent – to give precedence
to notions of prestige or solidarity when making such choices. Educators should
also be aware of the clear differentiation between models of English as
‘points of reference’ rather than ‘norms of use’ (Quay 2004) when selecting
forms of English speech in the language classroom.
Given the complexity of attitudes amongst learners in Japan, provided
mutual intelligibility can be maintained, it seems unreasonable to impose a
single or, indeed, a restricted range of pedagogical models for English
language classrooms. This seems as unrealistic as exposing learners only to
male speakers, or speakers over a certain age. A similar view is held by
© 2008 The Author

Canagarajah (2006: 26), who maintains that as ‘a proficient speaker of English

today needs to shuttle between different communities, recognizing the
systematic and legitimate status of different varieties of English . . . to be
really proficient in English in the postmodern world, one has to be
multidialectal’. Nevertheless, much more work remains to be done. For
instance, to build up a more detailed picture of the attitudes of Japanese (and
other) learners towards English speech varieties, future studies should
present recordings of speakers of other varieties of English for evaluation.
Much remains to be understood, for example, regarding Japanese
learners’ attitudes towards standard/non-standard varieties of English in
Australia, Canada or South Africa as well as evaluations of forms of English
spoken in the Expanding Circle outside Japan. The results from such studies
may also have pedagogical implications.
The findings that differences in social factors can account for differences
in the evaluations of Japanese learners of varieties of English undoubtedly
have implications for English language policy in Japan and suggest that
particular social groups may have to be targeted specifically. For instance,
because females were found to have a greater preference for Inner Circle
varieties, there appears to be a particular requirement to familiarise female
students of English with Japanese-accented and other Expanding Circle
varieties of English, to reduce the ambivalence there appears to be about such
varieties. The findings may also indicate that a change in attitude towards
native and non-native English speech is currently occurring in Japan. For
example, it may well be that learners with higher levels of exposure to and
familiarity with varieties of English are leading attitude change towards a
greater acceptance of non-standard as well as standard varieties of Inner
Circle English. Nevertheless, although the findings provide evidence of the
subsections of the population in which attitude change may be occurring,
there is a need for similar studies to be undertaken amongst Japanese
learners to validate (or not) the findings obtained in the present study, as
well as to investigate whether other factors within the population, such as age
or level of education, influence attitudes towards English speech varieties. It
would be of particular value to undertake longitudinal studies to be better
able to determine the direction of any attitude change towards English
varieties amongst the language-learning population in Japan. Such studies
would also allow researchers to measure to what extent the attitudes that
learners hold towards forms of English are a determinant of their long-term
level of success in the acquisition of the target language.
The study also substantiates ‘attitudes towards L1’ as an explanatory
variable which can account for differences between Japanese learners’ attitudes
towards English varieties. This suggests that when conducting surveys involv-
ing the attitudes of non-native speakers towards varieties of English, whenever
possible, it would be profitable to include details regarding learners’
evaluations of L1 as well as providing information on other potentially
determining factors. The present study, nevertheless, should be looked upon
© 2008 The Author

as exploratory. As this was the first attempt to measure the effects of attitudes
towards L1 on attitudes towards L2 amongst learners of English in Japan, it
is necessary to refine the methodological investigation of the issue. It would
also be interesting to investigate the generalisability of the findings with
learners of English amongst language-learning populations in other contexts.
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© 2008 The Author

Appendix A: Speech collection: map task
Please give directions from the START position to the CASTLE.
Appendix B: Transcript of Speakers
Speaker 1: GSE
OK..em . . . go straight ahead which is . . . to the east to begin with until you
get to a church and then you’re going to turn left . . . em going to the north
keep going until the path turns really sharply to the right hand side . . . eh
follow that along and you’ll pass mountains on yer left . . . and past them
there’s a wee kink in the path but keep going straight on until you get to
the bridge which you should go under and not over em . . . then..s
. . . immediately after that turn left and keep going until the path turns
round to the right . . . em about the same time there’s a lake on your left
and go along the south side of the lake . . . then turn sharply to the right
after you get to the end of the lake and you’re to go south for quite a
long distance . . . eh keep going past the smoking volcano and until you
get to the airport and then . . . turn sharply left the airport will be on
your right and . . . keep going to the east until you get to a factory when
you’ll turn very sharply to the left again and continue north all the way
up until you get to the hospital where you’ll turn right . . . the hospital
will be on your right and go straight ahead until you get to the castle
which is on your left
© 2008 The Author

Speaker 2: HJE
mm . . . firstly walk towards to the church and turn left and just keep
straight about ten kilometre then turn right and you’ll see the mountain
and keep straight . . . along the street . . . then you’ll see the bridge then
turn left and . . . yeah (laughs) just keep along the street and you’ll see the
lake so please keep along the lake and turn . . . right end of the lake and
just keep straight and you’ll see the volcano but please keep straight and
then you’ll see the airport so please to tu..turn left and walk toward to
the factory then turn ri..turn left just keep straight to . . . until you see the
hospital then turn right and just keep straight and then you’ll see the
castle
Speaker 3: SUSE
so you wanna walk straight until you reach the church at the church make
a left walk straight until you reach the mountains . . . huh make a right and
walk with the mountains on your left side when you reach the end of the
mountain range you’re gonna cont . . . you’re gonna jog to the r . . . to the left
and then . . . right walk straight until you go under the bridge after the
bridge make a left and then walk straight until you see a lake when you hit
the lake em . . . make a right and walk with the lake on your left side when
you get to the end of the lake make a right walk straight for quite a while
you’re gonna pass a volcano on your right but keep walking straight until
you get to the airport and then when you get to the airport make a left go
straight til you reach a factory make another left and then you’re gonna go
straight until you pass . . . you’ll pass a hospital on your right side at the end
after the hospital make a . . . a right and then walk straight until you get to
the castle
Speaker 4: MJE
and to go to a castle.. em if you can see a church in front of you . . . keep

going this street until a church . . . and turn . . . left in front of it and take
the first . . . to . . . right and . . . you will walk along the mountains and
under the bridge turn left and take the first to . . . the right in front of a
lake and turn right and keep going straight ahead until you come to an
airport . . . and . . . turn left in front of it and you’ll see a factory in front of
you and turn . . . left in front of that and . . . keep walking and you will see
a hospital and . . . turn right at the end of the hospital and you will see a
castle on your left
© 2008 The Author

Speaker 5: MWUSE
ok . . . from the start position . . . em . . . you will first see a church on the right
hand side of the road . . . from the church you will go up a hill em . . . around
a bend and then you will come to see some mountains on the left hand side
of the road . . . there will be a slight bend to the . . . left of mountains you go
down a little valley on the right side of the mountains and you will go up a
small hill . . . after you go up the small hill you will um go across a bridge
um from the bridge you will take a slight sharp right hand turn um to . . . to
you come to a . . . lake from the lake you will go down until you will see a
volcano on the left hand side of . . . the right hand side of the road . . . then
you will from the volcano you will go down and you will see a airport on
the left hand side of the road then from the airport you will drive on a
straight road until you see a . . . factory from the factory you will drive up a
straight road til you see a hospital on the left hand side from the hospital you
will go down another straight road until you reach the castle
Speaker 6: GV
ok from where ye are you just walk straight along until you get tae the
church . . . at the church yer gonnae take a left keep walking all the way up
until you get to just before a set of mountains . . . at the mountains or jist
before you would turn right walk away by the mountains keep walking the
road swings round to the left a wee bit . . . go to the bridge walk under the
bridge jist after the bridge you would take a left then you come to a
lake . . . jist before the lake you would take a right so that you’re walking
along by the lake then after the lake turn right again now you’re walking along
by the lake then after the lake turn right again now you’re walking along
a long stretch of road and you will pass a . . . volcano on the right hand
side jist after the volcano you will come to a an airport . . . big airport at the
airport you wid take a left and walk all the way along until you come to a
factory . . . at the factory you would take a then turn left left again walk all
the way along then yi would come to a hospital at the hospital take a right
walk along . . . good wee bit along and then jist at the church . . . sorry it’s not
a church it’s a castle ye turn left into the castle and that’s you there
© 2008 The Author

Appendix C: Perceptual dialectology task
(i) On the map, draw circles around the areas of Japan where people speak
varieties ( ) of Japanese different from standard Japanese
( ).
(ii) How would you describe the speakers of these varieties of Japanese?
© 2008 The Author

Appendix D: Pairwise comparisons: competence
(I)Speaker (J)Speaker Mean difference Sig.

competence competence (I–J)
HJE MJE −.390(*) .000

GSE −.763(*) .000
GV −1.109(*) .000
SUSE −1.626(*) .000
MWUSE −1.639(*) .000
MJE HJE .390(*) .000
GSE −.373(*) .000
GV −.719(*) .000
SUSE −1.236(*) .000
MWUSE −1.250(*) .000
GSE HJE .763(*) .000
MJE .373(*) .000
GV −.346(*) .000
SUSE −.863(*) .000
MWUSE −.877(*) .000
GV HJE 1.109(*) .000
MJE .719(*) .000
GSE .346(*) .000
SUSE −.517(*) .000
MWUSE −.530(*) .000
SUSE HJE 1.626(*) .000
MJE 1.236(*) .000
GSE .863(*) .000
GV .517(*) .000
MWUSE −.013 1.000
MWUSE HJE 1.639(*) .000
MJE 1.250(*) .000
GSE .877(*) .000
GV .530(*) .000
SUSE .013 1.000
* The mean difference is significant at .05 level.
© 2008 The Author

Appendix E: Pairwise comparisons: social attractiveness
(I)Speaker (J)Speaker Mean difference Sig.

attractiveness attractiveness (I–J)
MWUSE GSE −.132 .090

MJE −.271(*) .000
SUSE −.387(*) .000
GV −.470(*) .000
HJE −.716(*) .000
GSE MWUSE .132 .090
MJE −.139(*) .010
SUSE −.255(*) .000
GV −.337(*) .000
HJE −.583(*) .000
MJE MWUSE .271(*) .000
GSE .139(*) .010
SUSE −.116 .141
GV −.198(*) .000
HJE −.444(*) .000
SUSE MWUSE .387(*) .000
GSE .255(*) .000
MJE .116 .141
GV −.082 1.000
HJE −.328(*) .000
GV MWUSE .470(*) .000
GSE .337(*) .000
MJE .198(*) .000
SUSE .082 1.000
HJE −.246(*) .000
HJE MWUSE .716(*) .000
GSE .583(*) .000
MJE .444(*) .000
SUSE .328(*) .000
GV .246(*) .000
* The mean difference is significant at .05 level.
© 2008 The Author

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Language attitudes and native speakers

Studies focusing specifically on native speaker attitudes towards varieties of

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non-standard varieties of English. In contrast, non-standard speech tends to

Language attitudes and non-native speakers

The social evaluations of non-native speakers of languages and language

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British English, it remains unclear to what extent English language learners

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The research instrument

1. The verbal-guise technique

This section examines the informants’ language attitudes towards English

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Table 1. Verbal-guise study: the semantic-differential scale

pleasant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 not pleasant

tended to employ traits in the semantic-differential scale on the basis of those

This section gathers information regarding the informants’ evaluations of

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3. Background information of participants

The limited number of previous studies which have concentrated specifically

The varieties of speech selected

As it was considered vital to give the informants a sufficient period of time

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Table 2. Speakers and varieties of speech employed

Speaker Speech variety Description Coded

1 Glasgow Standard Native/Inner Circle/ GSE

To further minimise potential extraneous factors amongst the selected

The population selected consisted principally of Japanese nationals currently

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Results and discussion

Table 3. Rotated component matrix: sum of speakers

Speaker evaluations: analysis of components extracted

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Table 4. Rankings according to speaker competence and speaker social attractiveness

Competence Social attractiveness

Mid-West US English Heavily-accented Japanese English

analysis of variance (ANOVA) and follow-up pairwise comparison analysis

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learners’ awareness of the prestige which standard varieties of US English,

Attitudes towards non-standard Japanese

Although it is clear that some differences in evaluations exist, the informants

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The social factors of gender, self-perceived proficiency in English,

Analysis was also conducted to investigate the potential influence of the

No significant overall effect was found for gender on social attractiveness:

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2. Self-perceived proficiency in English

No significant overall effect was demonstrated for self-perceived proficiency

3. Previous exposure to English

No significant overall effect was found for previous exposure to English on